Financial Self-Discovery for Medical Professionals

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA MEd CMP™

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A Financial Self Discovery Questionnaire for Medical Professionals

For understanding your relationship with money, it is important to be aware of yourself in the contexts of culture, family, value systems and experience.  These questions will help you.  This is a process of self-discovery.  To fully benefit from this exploration, please address them in writing.  You will simply not get the full value from it if you just breeze through and give mental answers.  While it is recommended that you first answer these questions by yourself, many people relate that they have enjoyed the experience of sharing them with others who are important to them. 

As you answer these questions, be conscious of your feelings, actually describing them in writing as part of your process. 

Childhood

  • What is your first memory of money?
  • What is your happiest moment with Money? Your most unhappy?
  • Name the miscellaneous money messages you received as a child.
  • How were you confronted with the knowledge of differing economic circumstances among people, that there were people “richer” than you and people “poorer” than you?

Cultural heritage

  • What is your cultural heritage and how has it interfaced with money?
  • To the best of your knowledge, how has it been impacted by the money forces?  Be specific.  
  • To the best of your knowledge, does this circumstance have any motive related to Money?
  • Speculate about the manners in which your forebears’ money decisions continue to affect you today? 

Family

  • How is/was the subject of money addressed by your church or the religious traditions of your forebears?
  • What happened to your parents or grandparents during the Depression?
  • How did your family communicate about money?
  • How?  Be as specific as you can be, but remember that we are more concerned about impacts upon you than historical veracity.
  • When did your family migrate to America (or its current location)?
  • What else do you know about your family’s economic circumstances historically?

Your parents

  • How did your mother and father address money?
  • How did they differ in their money attitudes?
  • How did they address money in their relationship?
  • Did they argue or maintain strict silence?
  • How do you feel about that today?

Please do your best to answer the same questions regarding your life or business partner(s) and their parents.

Childhood: Revisited

  • How did you relate to money as a child?  Did you feel “poor” or “rich”? 
    Relatively?  Or, absolutely?  Why?
  • Were you anxious about money?
    Did you receive an allowance?  If so, describe amounts and responsibilities.
  • Did you have household responsibilities?
  • Did you get paid regardless of performance?
  • Did you work for money?

If not, please describe your thoughts and feelings about that.

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Same questions, as a teenager, young adult, older adult.

Credit

  • When did you first acquire something on credit?
  • When did you first acquire a credit card?
  • What did it represent to you when you first held it in your hands?
  • Describe your feelings about credit.
  • Do you have trouble living within your means?
  • Do you have debt?

Adulthood

  • Have your attitudes shifted during your adult life?  Describe.

Why did you choose your personal path? 
a)      Would you do it again?
b)      Describe your feelings about credit.

Adult attitudes

  • Are you money motivated? 
    If so, please explain why?  If not, why not? 
    How do you feel about your present financial situation? 
    Are you financially fearful or resentful?  How do you feel about that?
  • Will you inherit money?  How does that make you feel?
  • If you are well off today, how do you feel about the money situations of others? 
    If you feel poor, same question. 
  • How do you feel about begging?  Welfare?
    If you are well off today, why are you working?
  • Do you worry about your financial future?
  • Are you generous or stingy?  Do you treat?  Do you tip?
  • Do you give more than you receive or the reverse?  Would others agree?
  • Could you ask a close relative for a business loan?  For rent/grocery money?
  • Could you subsidize a non-related friend?  How would you feel if that friend bought something you deemed frivolous? 
  • Do you judge others by how you perceive they deal with their Money?
    Do you feel guilty about your prosperity?
    Are your siblings prosperous?
  • What part does money play in your spiritual life?
  • Do you “live” your Money values?

Conclusion

There may be other questions that would be useful to you.  Others may occur to you as you progress in your life’s journey. The point is to know your personal money issues and their ramifications for your life, work, and personal mission. 

This will be a “work-in-process” with answers both complex and incomplete.  Don’t worry. 

Just incorporate fine-tuning into your life’s process.

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My Stock Market Forecast for 2015

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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All Forecasts Will Be Wrong

[By Lon Jefferies MBA CFP®]

Lon JeffriesThe investment media is a rare industry in which professionals are rewarded for making bold projections but never punished for being wrong. The more outlandish a pundit’s forecast the more attention it receives.

Yet, surprisingly little consideration is given to how accurate the prediction turns out to be.

At the beginning of 2014, there were some widely-accepted expectations regarding the investment environment.

Let’s review those predictions and analyze how precise they really were.

Interest Rates

In a study conducted by Bloomberg at the beginning of the year, all 72 economists surveyed predicted higher interest rates and falling bonds prices in 2014. Consequently, investors were questioning whether they should reduce or eliminate the bond portion of their portfolios until the rate increase occurred.

So, have we experienced this rise in interest rates?

On January 1st, 2014, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 3 percent. On November 13th, the yield on the same note was 2.35 percent. That’s right — interest rates actually decreased significantly during the year. As a result, intermediate U.S. government bonds (ticker – IEF) produced a return of 7.38% during the year. Not bad for the conservative portion of your portfolio!

Quantitative Easing

The most widely promoted fear among forecasters was that the phasing out of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) program would diminish stock returns. Prognosticators worried that the Fed would lower the amount of loans the government would buy from commercial banks, thus reducing the amount of money available for new businesses to borrow leading to less innovation and the creation of fewer jobs.

But, was the reduction of quantitative easing a legitimate fear? In fact, this possibility came to fruition. In December of 2013, the Federal Reserve was buying $85 billion of financial assets from commercial banks each month. The Fed reduced this amount during every meeting it held this year, finally eliminating the action completely in October.

However, the elimination of Quantitative Easing did not have a negative impact on the unemployment rate, which declined from 6.7% in January to 5.8% in October. Further, the S&P 500 has gained 12.31% year-to-date (as of 11/13/14). Clearly, fading out the Quantitative Easing program didn’t have the negative impact on stocks that many pundits expected.

Increased Volatility

Another widely held viewpoint at the beginning of the year was that 2014 was likely to be more volatile than anything experienced in 2012 or 2013. There was talk about valuations and P/E ratios being too high, concern about the war in Ukraine (ISIS wasn’t even in the headlines yet), and endless noise about unfavorable weather patterns impacting the market.

So, has 2014 been a wild ride? Since 1929, the S&P 500 has experienced either a rise or a decline of more than 1% during 23% of trading days. In 2014, the S&P 500 moved more than 1% only 15% of the time. Less movement equates to less volatility, so again forecasters were inaccurate.

2015 Forecasts

Bloomberg News recently published a story titled Predictors of ’29 Crash See 65% Chance of 2015 Recession, in which the grandson of a prognosticator who luckily forecasted the Great Depression is still getting attention for a guess his grandfather made 85 years ago. If giving credence to forecasters isn’t ridiculous enough, suggesting there is a gene for forecasting is insane!

The article doesn’t mention that the same grandson made similar headlines with the same forecast in both 2010 and 2012; of course, those predictions did not work out so well. You will start hearing many 2015 projections soon, so pay no heed.

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glasses

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Ignore the Pundits

The most significant lesson inherent in these numbers is that market expectations are essentially useless. Despite their abysmal track record, the news media loves forecasters because they capture attention and fill space. Unfortunately, pundits making projections are rarely held to their inaccurate forecasts and are allowed to continue making a living showing they have no greater knowledge than the average investor.

Of course, this is not to say that interest rates will never rise, that bond values will never decline, and that the market won’t return to the roller coaster it is. In fact, all those things are certain to happen. Unfortunately, anyone who contends to know “when” likely doesn’t actually know anymore than you or me. For this reason, having and sticking to a diversified investment strategy that coincides with a detailed financial plan is the most probable path to financial success.

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The Great Depression of 2008

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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Understanding EESA

[By Staff Reporters]

On October 3, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA).  It contained significant provisions that will not only impact the financial sector but is a truly “global” law aimed at establishing the stability and reliability of the American banking system and its posture to the world community.

While presenting a speech on the issue in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, October 11, after a precipitous drop in the stock market the day before, President Bush at 8:00 a.m. (EST) held a press conference with the G-7 Finance Ministers behind him attempting to, once again, quell the fears of the global business community as to a concentrated global effort to “right the ship” of state.

Medical Professionals; et al

Physicians, healthcare administrators, financial advisors, iMBA firm clients, printer-journal subscribers to www.HealthcareFinancials.com and our Executive-Post readers seem to be all asking the same question: are we entering into another “great depression.” To answer this, one needs to review the events leading to this worldwide financial debacle.

Not the Same 

First, this is nothing like the depression of the 1930’s.  The institutions and causes are substantially different.  To prove this your self, just read the seminal work by the economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, “The Great Crash“, and the dissimilarities to the present global situation will be striking.

Second, a little known fact, but two prime catalysts were the principal culprits in this crisis.  One is a financial vehicle called credit default swaps (CDSs) and the other is a generally accepted financial accounting rule known as “mark-to-market”.

Investment Banking Meltdown

At the beginning of 2008, the United States had five major investment banking houses.  By October it had only two remaining.  What brought this major change was the so-called sub-prime debt problem.  But this is the deceptive label given it by naive journalists.  In reality, it was a worldwide market of 54 Trillion (this is not a typo – say again, 54 Trillion) dollar CDS market that collapsed.

Cause and Affect 

How could this happen?  Greed is the short answer but the business expediency of setting up a CDS is largely to blame.  Here’s how it worked.

Example: 

A party would by phone or email enter into a credit default swap contract with a bank.  This could be for an actual debt, e.g. sub-prime obligation or hedging on a non-owned instrument (cross-party) obligation.  Payment of premiums ensured the default.  In the event of default of the obligation, the bank, e.g., Lehman Brothers, would satisfy the contract.  It is a significant fact in these transactions that there was no federal or state regulatory body supervising them. Why?  Because these contracts were not per se securities and, thus, no oversight was necessary.  Of course, the facts belie this assertion — to the tune of 54 Trillion dollars!

Financial Accounting

Then there is the financial accounting rule that required businesses — including financial institutions — to mark their assets, i.e., sub-prime mortgages, to market value.  In a declining market this would require the creation of an unrealized loss on the bank’s books causing investors and others to view the bank as less solvent. 

Assessment

This accounting rule, endorsed by the International Accounting Board in London and enunciated in its International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), is also applied overseas.  French President Sarkosy stated that the rule is rescinded in France and the recent EESA of 2008 in the United States requires the SEC to decide whether to suspend it as well.

Conclusion

The DOW fell to 8,519 yesterday, the NASDAQ to 1,615 and the S&P to 896; all medical professionals are anxious. And so, are we entering into another great depression? Please vote.

And, subscribe and contribute your own thoughts, experiences, questions, knowledge and comments on this topic for the benefit of all our Medical Executive-Post readers.

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